Suspended sentences for organised crime gang members linked to decade-old cocaine seizure

Three men described as members of an organised crime group involved in the supply of cocaine across the north west received suspended sentences linked to a large seizure of the drug close to a decade ago.

The marathon legal action was prompted by the seizure of £405,000 of cocaine found in the driver’s footwell of a car stopped at Nutts Corner in November 2015.

Peter Anthony Neill, now aged 38 and from Coleraine, Co Derry and 35-year-old Ashley Richard Craig, from Strathfoyle, were both charged soon after the seizure, though neither were in the car when it was stopped.

Following the sentencing hearing, a senior police officer said she hoped the suspended terms “sends out a very powerful message”.

Initial court proceedings against three individuals collapsed in 2018 after a district judge ruled that it could not go ahead due to prosecution delays.

On Wednesday, at Belfast Crown Court, Neill was sentenced to two years, suspended for three, for conspiracy to posses cocaine for supply, Craig receiving the same sentence for the same offence.

A third man, Aaron John Connor (35), from Castlerock, was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for two years for purchasing a mobile phone to assist the supply of drugs.

All three previously pleaded guilty.

Police said the three were members of an organised crime gang operating out of Coleraine and supplying drugs in the town but also across the north west.

The PSNI’s organised crime branch said the sentencings are “the result of a lengthy and extensive investigation into the activities of an organised crime group operating primarily in the Coleraine area,” but with activity extending into Derry and Claudy.

“These individuals activities focused on the supply of a Class A controlled drug, namely cocaine linked to a significant seizure in Nutts Corner in 2015.“

Superintendent Sinead McIldowney, district commander for Causeway Coast and Glens, said “organised criminality and drug-dealing has no place in our community”.

“I, along with my team, am only too aware of the concerns of local people, and I hope that today’s result sends out a very powerful message,” Superintendent McIldowney said.

She added: “Those who supply illegal drugs care only about lining their own pockets, and always at the expense of others. They don’t care about the devastation that results, with families and loved ones left to deal with the inevitable heartache and loss.”